It’s Not Digiorno, It’s Delivery
Credit: Nostrandpark.com
Yes, Crown Heights suffers from a dearth of dine-in establishments, but sometimes there are ways around that. As we have blogged about before, instead of going to the food, sometimes you can have the food brought to you – through local food delivery services like Take Out Taxi and Go To Girls, that deliver food from restaurants that otherwise do not deliver (to Crown Heights or at all).
Dine-In Delivery Services
Sadly, it seems that since we first blogged about them, Take Out Taxi has gone out of business. Their website is down and when we called the phone number, a woman answered and said “Sorry, you have the wrong number.” We are not sure if Go To Girls is still in business. Their website is still up but they did not respond to our email inquiry within their 24 hour window. This really is a great business model for areas like Crown Heights where residents may want, but not have quick access to, a variety of food options. Hopefully some entrepreneur out there will pick up where others have left off!
Other Delivery Options
In the mean time, don’t fret, because other options exist. If you’re like us, you probably receive a steady rotation of Chinese delivery menus weekly and may think those are the only delivery options out there. They’re not! [NP1] As we discovered after reading a recent post on Brokelyn, there’s a world (or should we say a neighborhood) of local delivery at your fingertips. The website Grubhub.com provides a forum to view local menus, read reviews, get coupons and even order food online. Check out the Brokelyn post for information about a special discount for first time users of GrubHub.
[NP1] Per GrubHub there are over 20 restaurants that deliver to our particular address!
Grocery Delivery Services
Beyond restaurants, there are other delivery options for the mobility disinclined. As of last year (or so), the organic/fresh food delivery service, Fresh Direct began delivering to Crown Heights.
There’s also the local Foodtown in Restoration Corporation which has significantly more options than the smaller local grocery shops, including a sizable organic selection. For $10, you can order food online and have it delivered to your Crown Heights address (they deliver within a 2 mile radius of the store). [NP2] Or for $3 you can go to the store itself, pick out what you want and have them deliver to you.
Bottom line is while there is certainly room for improvement with Crown Heights’ food scene, there are some options.
[NP2] We’ve ordered through Foodtown’s online service a few times in the past and would give them a 6.5 out of 10. Many times that we ordered the items on the website were not actually available in the store, which they only informed us about after we placed our order. The staff was great at suggesting alternatives, but it would have been better not to have had our hopes up. Delivery is generally very prompt, though one time they came 15 – 30 minutes late. The orders have always been accurate.
Popularity: 3% [?]
on the real tho a lot of delivery places be frontin on delivering below nostrand ave, and if they do deliver to your block, you gotta come downstairs. when i’m working on apts in park slope and we place food orders the delivery guy brings your food to the door. in the hood, you gotta come out to them in car like it’s a drug deal or some ish.
y’all should do a post about best hood chinese food restaurant. have a best chicken wing contest or some ish like that
I work at a nonprofit in Bed Stuy and for the most part, folks make deliveries right to our office (which is in a Brownstone east of Nostrand). There was one time when a delivery guy refused to come to our door and made us go outside. Funny enough, we would always order from that same spot and most of the time they would bring the food upstairs to our door. But I think they had a new guy and he wasn’t comfortable with the scene.
In Crown Heights, most places deliver right to my door except Dominos/Papa Johns. I have to go outside. Seems like it’s company policy, but I would be curious if they do the same in other hoods.
Regarding the "best hood chinese food restaurant" not sure if it was tongue in cheek, but we actually did do a best jerk chicken post a while back. With the fried chicken spots, there are so many it would be hard to narrow down the selection. And most of the local spots taste the same to me. Any in particular that you would suggest?
Personally, I love KFC original chicken with Popeye’s sides! But you can’t beat the $4 chicken and fries combo that you get at many of the local Chinese spots. Kennedy at times is undersalted…
so what you are you trying to say?
l don’t know where you live, but by where I live on ___ between ___ and ___ the delivery guys from the Chinese food place sometimes like fronting that someone will steal their bike. I go downstairs for Dominos too. but when you see the commercials they’re always coming to people’s doors with goofy smiles on.
the one place that I know goes hard is that mexican place on classon. those dudes are gully.
That it seems to be hit or miss whether they will deliver to your door…
When I think about it, sometimes they call me from their cell to come outside, but I tell them that I will buzz them up and for the most part (except for Dominos/Papa Johns) they come up.
We must be neighbors, because I live on ____ between _____ and _____ too!
We need some decent sit down places. Most of the places that deliver are crap. I like to go out and sit down, have a nice dinner, couple of drinks. Tavern on Nostrand is getting close, but still needs to work on their slow service. Also, the music is too loud in there.
don’t know about you but my boo and i sit down just fine at jade garden
Crown Heights needs more options in all areas. We lack variety when it comes to fresh and/or gourmet foods. We lack a variety of upscale eating establishments. We lack variety on retail (how many 99 cents, beauty supplies and cell phone stores do we need?) . We shouldn’t have to go outside of the neighborhood (or to the outer fringes of the neighborhood) to find these things.
Btw, What about Fresh direct? I believe they’ve started delivering to our area..